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The things doctors usually say | Professor C H Ashton | Dr Vernon Coleman
"Ray, You are right in EVERYTHING you say and as a third generation doctor I apologise unreservedly to you and those like you who may have been prescribed Valium and similar drugs where simple alternatives may have existed. Yes, by 1988 it was abundantly clear that these drugs had many, many dangers and very limited benefits for insomnia or anxiety patients. You are welcome to quote anything I have written to you on your web page, especially my small apology which is VERY real and heartfelt (and, I hope, meaningful)." – Dr Andrew Byrne, General Practitioner, Drug and Alcohol, 75 Redfern Street, Redfern, New South Wales, 2016, Australia, Email: ajbyrne@ozemail.com.au – March 25, 2001
"The writing is on the wall for benzodiazepine use." - Dr Andrew Byrne
Dr Andrew Byrne's Article on Benzodiazepine Dependence, 1998"It is more difficult to withdraw people from benzodiazepines than it is heroin. It just seems that the dependency is so ingrained and the withdrawal symptoms you get are so intolerable that people have a great deal of problem coming off. The other aspect is that with heroin, usually the withdrawal is over within a week or so, with benzodiazepines, a proportion of patients go on to long term withdrawal and they have very unpleasant symptoms for month after month, and I get letters from people saying you can go on for two years or more. Some of the tranquilliser groups can document people who still have symptoms ten years after stopping." Professor Malcolm H Lader, Royal Maudesley Hospital, You & Yours, BBC Radio 4, 1999
"We knew from the start that patients taking markedly increased doses could get dependent, but thought only addictive personalities could become dependent and that true addiction was unusual. We got that wrong. What we didn't know, but know now, is that even people taking therapeutic doses can become dependent." – Professor Malcolm H Lader
"I would like to congratulate the members of this [benzo] group who contributed to a thorough and remarkably helpful document on benzodiazepines and benzo withdrawal. A 'must read' for anybody considering coming off benzos. More important, a must read for my colleagues who keep putting more on benzos! Well done!" – Dr Ray Baker, Assistant Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Canada
"If the popular press and more recently the legal profession had not taken up arms against the over prescription of tranquillisers, the issue of benzodiazepine dependence would still remain a medical curio only for the pages of medical journals. The media and lawyers have undoubtedly altered prescribing practices mostly for the better." – Dr Cosmo Hallstrom, Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 1991, 2 pp5-7
"The history of the benzodiazepines has not been a happy one for many people. Withdrawal from Halcion and Xanax and other benzodiazepines can be more difficult than from opiates such as heroin." – Dr Edwin Bien, Orthomolecular Medical Doctor
"The wide human exposure to this group of drugs throughout the world is of great concern for human health." – Giri AK, Banerjee S, 1996
When they first came out they were seen as some sort of panacea – or universal remedy. But with constant use it was found they turned people into zombies in the end." – Dr Ian Telfer, Consultant Psychiatrist, West Pennine Health Authority, UK
"If benzodiazepines are prescribed it should be only for a very short term – for two to four weeks. These drugs are highly addictive and people just can't stop taking them overnight." – Dr Rakesh Kohli, Oldham, UK
"Benzodiazepine dependence would be of minor clinical significance if it occurred only in those few individuals taking high doses of drugs; but it would be very important indeed if it supervened even to a minor degree in patients on usual clinical doses. Our clinical impression is that many patients experience symptoms on reduction or withdrawal of their benzodiazepine medication, and that whilst these symptoms somewhat resemble those of anxiety they differ qualitatively and are often more severe than those for which the medication was originally given." – C. Hallstrom, M. Lader, Benzodiazepine withdrawal phenomena, Int. Pharmacopsychiat, 1981, 16, 235-244).
"Dependence on the benzodiazepines does occur. Patients taking these drugs, even at therapeutic doses, for two or more months, may develop a physical withdrawal syndrome. The cardinal feature of the syndrome is anxiety, which may be mistakenly interpreted as a recrudescence of the original anxiety for which the drug was prescribed." – N. Hockings, B.R. Ballinger, Hypnotics and anxiolytics, in New Drugs, London: British Medical Association, 1983, 149-155.
"These (pills) relax people and put them to sleep, but they also cause physical dependence. It's not as dramatic a story as heroin or cocaine, but if you totalled all the damage, benzos would be comparable. Tranquillizers, the group of drugs formally called benzodiazepines, are too easily prescribed by well-meaning physicians who don't know enough about the drugs' addictive qualities." – Dr Doug Coleman, British Columbia, Canada
Increasing numbers of people have been turned into drug addicts through legal prescriptions which perhaps suits the politicians and multi-national bureaucrats as well as the drug companies for it ensures an uncomplaining and docile community which is easy to administer, manage and manipulate...tranquillisers are more addictive than heroin." – Dr Vernon Coleman, Life Without Tranquillisers, 1986
The Nightmare Pills – How Millions are Caught in the Tranquilliser Trap: "Drug companies making these products constantly warn doctors not to allow patients to take them for more than a week or two. They advise doctors not to make these drugs available on ‘repeat prescription’. Evidence showing that these drugs are addictive and potentially dangerous has been accumulating rapidly since the early 1970s. Numerous research papers have been published showing that products in this group can cause problems such as memory loss as well as anxiety, depression and sleeplessness.
"Ironically, these are the three symptoms for which they are most commonly prescribed. The Committee on Safety of Medicines has received reports showing that these drugs are well known to cause well over 100 different side effects. Earlier this month the DHSS and the Home Office publicly admitted that the size of Britain’s tranquilliser addiction problem is worrying them by bringing these drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 – the same legislation that controls drugs such as heroin. And yet thousands of doctors don’t seem to take any notice. It may be true that many still don’t know what else to do for patients who are suffering from anxiety or stress-related diseases. The only conclusion I can draw is that several thousand British doctors do not read articles in the medical journals nor do they study literature which is published by the drug companies.
"These painfully ignorant doctors have between them created the biggest drug addiction problem this country has ever known. It’s their addiction to prescribing these terrible drugs that has given us a nation of junkies." – Dr Vernon Coleman, Today, May 7, 1986
The things doctors usually say | Professor C H Ashton | Dr Vernon Coleman 
